Performance Impact on Mobile Broadband Data in a Mixed Voice Over LTE Environment

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the operational impact that VoLTE will have on the performance of mobile broadband data in the real world from a throughput perspective when the two service types are mixed on the same channel. We begin by proposing an M/G/1 priority queueing model with non-preemptive scheduling to analyze scheduler latencies that can be expected when there are services with different levels of priority in service on the same channel. We then discuss the direct impact that latency has on packet data convergence protocol layer throughputs, and simulate scheduler scenarios in a long-term evolution environment. Scheduler algorithms are highly proprietary and vary greatly from one vendor to another; however, there are some laws and constraints of both space and time that cannot be avoided. In this paper, we quantify these limitations using modeling and simulations. Finally, we provide solutions from a hardware configuration and capacity planning perspective to help to overcome these hidden limitations that are typically difficult to measure and quantify, and complex to understand.